NASA’s New High Dynamic Camera Records Rocket Blast

On Friday, NASA released the first footage from its game-changing new toy, the High Dynamic Range Stereo-X (HiDyRS-X) camera.

The footage — of Orbital ATK’s QM-2 solid rocket booster test — promises to offer great insight and direction for the future of NASA’s engineering program since it allows NASA scientists to observe minute details that have been heretofore unobservable.

First announced in May of 2015, NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo-X (HiDyRS-X) project was designed to offer high-speed 3D footage that’s recorded in a high dynamic range (i.e. in a bunch of exposures at once). The new camera will allow NASA scientists to record both tests and — in the long term — actual missions, obtaining a final product that yields invaluable insights.

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In short, NASA now has access to untold, and extremely important details that just might revolutionize the way we approach space travel.

This new camera technology has big time implications for future space-based rover and robotic missions as well as with rocket tests like the one posted Friday. Even more exciting, on the project’s announcement, NASA said the HiDyRS-X was absolutely necessary for any deep space missions.